FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



FARMERS' MONTHLY 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



Hampshire County Trustees for Aid to 

 Agriculture 



STAFF 

 Roland A. I*nyne> County Agent 

 Mildred W. Boice, 



Home Demonstration Agent 

 Norman F. Wliippcn, County Club Agrent 

 Mary Diliiond, Clerk 

 Mary Sullivan, Asst. Clerk 



Office First National Bank Building 

 Northampton, Mass. 



Entered as second class matter Nov. 9. 

 1915, at the Post Office at Northampton, 

 Massachusetts, under the Act of March 

 8, 1879. 



"Notice of Entry" 



"Acceptance for mailing at special rate 

 of postage provided for in section 1103, 

 Act of October 3, 1917. Authorized Oc- 

 tober 31, 1917. 



Price, 50 cents a year 



Officers of the Trustees 



Charles E. Clark, President 

 Charles W. Wade, Vice-President 

 Warren M. King, Treasurer 

 Roland A. Payne, Secretary 



Trustees for County Aid to Agriculture 

 Edwin B. Clapp, Easthampton 

 Charles E. Clark, Leeds 

 Clarence E. Hodgkins, Northampton 

 Milton S. Howes, Cummington 

 Mrs. Clifton Johnson, Hadley 

 Warren M. King, Northampton 

 Charles W. Wade, Hatfield 

 W. H. Atkins, Amherst ' 

 L. L. Campbell, Northampton 



for their labor. There are but two 

 things to be done if they are to stc^y in 

 the business ( 1 ) Produce more and better 

 roughages on their farms ; (2) Get better 

 cows. If dairymen would get excited 

 over these thing.s they would find that 

 profits could be increased. 



In a recent editorial. Hoard's Dairy- 

 I man said "If all eastern dairy farmers 

 were to get as much excited over lower- 

 ing the cost of production by growing the 

 crops needed for economic milk produc- 

 tion as a few seem to be over the story 

 that milk from the Middle West will be 

 coming into eastern markets, it would re- 

 sult in making their business much more 

 profitable." There are a few men who 

 have gotten excited over the production of 

 better roughages. There is a need for 

 more. 



GETTING EXCITED 



Changes in the price of milk always ex- 

 cite dairymen. Lower prices are not 

 popular. They are particularly un- 

 pleasant for those who depend on the 

 g]-ain sack instead of their farms to feed 

 their covins. Co-operative purchase of 

 grain and the co-operative marketing of 

 milk have caused considerable excitement. 

 Important as these steps have been they 

 have not been as important as economical 

 production. There are too few that get 

 e.xcited over this part of milk production, 

 >et the production and feeding of liberal 

 amounts of good hay and silage is the 

 foundation of dairy profits. 



The January cow testing records 

 showed that there were ten herds that 

 produced butter fat at a feed cost of less 

 than forty-five cents per pound. In 

 every one of these herds less than one 

 fifth of the milk check was spent for 

 grain. Liberal feeding of good hay and 

 silage made this small expenditure for 

 grain possible. The owners of these 

 herds can stand lower milk prices and 

 still stay in the business. More than half 

 of the dairymen in this county spend one 

 third or more of their milk check for 

 grain. These men have very little left 



PASTURE IMPROVEMENT 



You have undoubtedly noticed the bot- 

 tle of hair tonic on the barber's shelf 

 which has three cartoons depicting a man 

 lo.sing his hair. The figure in the first 

 two drawings has some hair on it's head 

 while in the third it has none. Under the 

 first two pictures it says "Going! — will 

 save it!" while under the third it 

 states "Gone! Too late for — !" These 

 cartoons show the way we usually go 

 about pasture improvement, we wait till 

 the good grasses and clovers are gone 

 and then try to bring them back by using 

 fertilizer. It is then too late to get re- 

 sults in this way. 



Many alleged pastures in this county 

 are of value only as exercising grounds 

 and, indirectly, because the cows get 

 ultra-violet rays from the sun while on 

 them. Pastures of this kind are a handi- 

 cap to the farmers who think that the 

 cows get much to eat from them. Too 

 much dependence on them means thin 

 cows in the fall. The.se cows have to be 

 fed more liberally than production war- 

 rants to get them in shape to produce 

 well. About the time that they get to do- 

 ing well there is more milk on the market 

 than is needed in fluid form. This means 

 that the farmers with poor pastures must 

 "cash in" on a low market for their 

 liberal fall feeding. In other words 

 dairymen pay for pasture improvement 

 even though they attempt no changes. 



The first step in pasture improvement 

 should be to try topdressing some of the 

 better parts where there is still a good 

 sod with some clover in it. In the west- 

 ern part of the county the use of acid 

 phosphate at the rate of 500 to 800 

 pounds per acre has made a great change 

 on some pastures both in the kind and in 

 the amount of grasses and clover. In no 

 case has clover been grown on a rock nor 

 has a .solid bed of moss been changed into 

 sweet grasses. C. E. Clark of Leeds; S. 

 S. Clark of Williamsburg; R. E. Bates 

 and C. M. Thayer of Cummington; Fred 



Thayer and William Baker, Jr. of Ches- 

 terfield; Fred Cole of Plainfield and 

 Ralph Cole of Huntington, — all have 

 demonstrations that have given striking 

 results. Both the clover and the grasses 

 have been increased by the use of acid 

 phosphate. Lime has shown but little 

 results on these plots. At the Experi- 

 ment station in Amherst, lime and potash 

 have given far better results than acid 

 phosphate. By putting on test plots on 

 the better parts of the pasture, one can 

 find out which chemical or combination of 

 chemicals will give best results. 



The last census showed that there are 

 about 11 000 acres of tillable land in this 

 county that are used for pasture. This 

 land ofl'ers an opportunity to try White 

 Sweet Clover. This crop was started last 

 year on the Pollard Farm in North- 

 ampton and by H. J. Searle and Son in 

 Hadley. On both fai'ms the land was 

 plowed, manured at the rate of about six 

 loads per acre and limed about three tons 

 to the acre. The lime was thoroughly 

 disced in and the sweet clover was sown 

 May i. The first of August the clover 

 was two feet tall and the cows were 

 turned into it. On the Pollard Farm 

 twelve Jersey cows and five heifers were 

 pastured a month on two acres and a half. 

 In about a week the cows increased about 

 a quart and a half each a day. This in- 

 crease came at a time when there would 

 normally be a decrease in production. 



White Sweet Clover needs lime and in- 

 oculation the same as alfalfa. It can be 

 pastured for a short time the first year if 

 it is sown early. The seed costs about 

 eighteen cents a pound, and it takes about 

 twenty pounds per acre. Full directions 

 for starting white sweet clover are con- 

 tained in Extension Leaflet No. 91, copies 

 of which can be obtained by writing to 

 the Hampshire County Extension Service, 

 .59 Main Street, Northampton. The great- 

 e.st expense in starting sweet clover will 

 1 be for lime. Manure and acid phosphate 

 (or mixed fertilizer where there is no 

 manure available) are also necessary to 

 start the crop. The County Agent would 

 be glad to assist farmers who can see 

 where this crop can help them to get 

 started right. 



HAY MOST VALUABLE CROP 



More Than 75 Per Cent Crop Acreage 

 Devoted to Tame Hay 



Tame hay is the real "King" of New 

 England crops, as shown by the fact that 

 79% of the crop acreage of this section 

 is devoted to tame hays, according to re- 

 cent report of V. A. Sanders and C. D. 

 Stevens, statisticians for the Crop Re- 

 porting Service, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture. This figure would be re- 

 duced slightly if acreage of orchards, 

 small fruit and other crops of minor im- 

 portance were taken into consideration. 



